The current occupants of Baltimore’s seat of government won’t be up for reelection until 2020, but that doesn’t mean they’ve slacked off on replenishing their campaign coffers.

The “City Hall 17” – consisting of one mayor, one council president, one comptroller and 14 council members – raised $697,174 in political contributions last year.

If that seems like a good bit of pocket change for an off-off-election year, consider this:

Combined with what was already sitting in their treasury accounts, the 17 now possess $1,899,619 in campaign cash, The Brew’s review of the latest filings with the Maryland Board of Elections shows.

That averages out to $112,000 per official. But averages mean little when the political committees of the three citywide officeholders (Mayor Catherine Pugh, Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young and Comptroller Joan Pratt) claim two-thirds of the wealth.

The “City Hall 17” line up in September 2016. On that same day, the outgoing City Council approved a $660 million TIF financing package for Kevin Plank’s Port Covington. (Fern Shen)

Missing from the Money Tree

Noticeably absent on the 2017 donor list was Kevin Plank.

Even though Pugh, Pratt, Young and 11th District Councilman Eric Costello went to bat trying to lure Amazon’s second headquarters to Plank’s long-promised-but-currently-not-happening Port Covington project, giveback wasn’t on the mind of the athletic-wear mogul.

No contributions appear to have been made by Plank or his sidekick, Marc Weller.

Nor did any contributions materialize from Under Armour, Sagamore Development, Plank Industries or Weller Development. (In an interesting twist, Weller and his wife Eileen hosted a fundraiser for Republican Gov. Larry Hogan a few days before the city sent off Plank’s bid to Amazon.)

A few things we have found about these political payments:

• They’re strategic. For the most part, the contributions should be considered a down payment by members of the donor class on what will be contributed (if the donor remains pleased with the officeholder) in the 2020 election.

• They benefit from a loophole. $6,000 is the limit that an individual person or company can contribute to a campaign during the four-year election cycle. It’s perfectly legal, however, for an individual to donate in the names of family members, business associates or different LLCs (limited liability companies), thereby increasing their generosity, while making it harder to trace the transactions in public records.

• They rarely reflect a “populist” approach. Fifteen of the 17 officials secured the bulk of their funds from out-of-district, and often out-of-city, “special interests.” The typical donation was pricey for an average citizen – $750 in the case of Mayor Pugh.

Catherine Pugh chats with “super lawyer” Steve Silverman at a recent reception. Silverman and his partners handed the mayor more than $12,000 in cash and in-kind contributions. The mayor’s campaign treasurer, Eileen Thompson, is married to partner Brian G. Thompson. (Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin, White Facebook)

• Finding support in the grassroots. Two Councilmen, Zeke Cohen and Ryan Dorsey, raised money through fundraisers with tickets as low as $10 and donors able to buy as few as one.

• The pass-through game. Many Council members are passive recipients of contributions by unions, trade groups, lobbyists and developer interests, whose sole purpose for giving seems to be maintaining the status quo or securing a favor.

Below is a detailed rundown of who reaped what from whom among the City Hall 17, in descending order of the money raised.

Mayor Pugh, upper center, at Maria Tildon’s Christmas slumber party in December. Ex-mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is clutching a cocktail. To her left is City Hall lawyer-lobbyist Lisa Harris Jones. School Board Commissioner Michelle Harris Bondima is to Pugh’s right.

NOTES: Pugh raised most of her money before and after Christmas, with invitation-only events at the Caves Valley Golf Club, Gertrude’s and Ruth’s Chris Steak House. The December 6 Caves Valley fundraiser was organized by real estate developer and Pugh finance chairman Steven Sibel. . . No labor union (with the exception of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees PAC) supported Pugh, who vetoed the $15 minimum wage bill last spring. The Theatrical union gave her $250. . . Pugh is actively planning her reelection. Mayson-Dixon Consulting was hired to be her fundraiser, headed by Jayson Williams, who cut his teeth as an aide to Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller. . . Exelon and BGE arranged for 23 company executives to make donations to the mayor in $500 and $750 increments. . . Pugh’s campaign committee repaid the final tranche of $73,000 in loans she made to her committee going back to the early 2000s. . . The campaign returned a $3,500 check from J.P. Grant, the Columbia financier and ex-promoter of the Baltimore Grand Prix.

Young is a meat-and-potatoes guy who vacuums up contributions from contractors and consultants and staff.

NOTES: Young is a meat-and-potatoes guy who vacuums up contributions from contractors and consultants who come before the Board of Estimates he presides over (e.g., Spiniello, KCI Technologies, George P. Mahoney’s Monumental Paving). Then there are the businessmen who come before the City Council for zoning, PUD (planned urban development) and other measures. . . Young’s immediate staff, such as spokesman Lester Davis and executive assistant Mary Demory, chip in to the collection plate. . . Gateway of Naples, a Florida concern, can be traced back to Baltimore’s Continental Realty Corp. . . Inner Harbor East Garage LLC is controlled by the Paterakis family. . . PP&G Inc. owns Norma Jean’s, a strip club on The Block.

Comptroller Pratt

Amount raised in 2017: $3,750Current Cash Balance: $233,356

Two Major Contributors: Integrity Title & Escrow of Owings Mills ($2,000) and Charles Management ($1,000).

Sample Expenses: $5,894 to Rice Consulting, $6,000 transferred to 46th District Delegate Robbyn Lewis’ campaign committee, and $2,000 paid to the firm of Joseph Woolman, lawyer for bar owners, for a fundraiser.

NOTES: Ensconced in Baltimore’s mostly prosperous near-south, central and near-north districts, Costello has become a key City Hall player by dint of (on one hand) his strong constituent services and (on the other) his doing what Council President Young wants him to do. . . Being pro-business and pro-developer makes him a favorite among business interests, including the John Paterakis/H&S Bakery empire. . . Costello got $500 from Roula Passon-Paterakis, John’s widow who now is in a bitter court battle with the Paterakis children over the patriarch’s fortune. . . GGC-Baltimore LLC is the creation of Maurice “Mo” Wyatt, the legendary patronage chief of ex-Gov. Marvin Mandel. GGC-Baltimore owns Gentlemen’s Gold, an establishment that bills itself as “Maryland’s premier upscale adult entertainment complex.”

NOTES: The rookie councilman has established himself as a law-and-order advocate and deal-maker who secured a $50,000 command patrol vehicle for the Shomrim patrol group with Pimlico slots money. . . Despite representing voters on the opposite end of town, Schleifer attracts many of the same business interests that back Costello. . . Ditto for the Baltimore Police union, whose PAC contributed $1,000 to Costello and $500 to Schleifer.

Sean Davis, who is chairman of the Baltimore Planning Commission, handed out $3,750 to six elected officials last year, including Leon Pinkett. He is a principal of a landscape architecture firm engaged in the Madison North Apartments project in Pinkett’s district. (Morris & Ritchie Associates)

NOTES: A former senior development officer at the Baltimore Development Corp. (BDC), Pinkett forged many ties with local developers and consultants. How these relationships could help spur new projects in the deeply depressed Penn North, Coppin Hills and Mondawmin areas is unknown. . . So far, the biggest project is a hollowed-out strip of West North Avenue designated as the future Madison Park North project. A cluster of parties involved in the development, including MCB Real Estate, Mark Renbaum, Morris & Ritchie and ex-BDC officer Caroline Paff, have funneled roughly $10,000 to Pinkett’s campaign committee since 2016.

City Hall lobbyist Frank Boston last year dispensed $2,000 evenly among four Council members – Zeke Cohen, Ryan Dorsey, Brandon Scott and Shannon Sneed. (Law Offices of Frank Boston III)

Sample Expense: About $3,000 to pay for artwork and food at a November fundraiser.

NOTES: Dorsey’s small contributors included bike advocates and artists chipping in $10 or $20 to buy fundraising tickets. . . His big donors came from the ranks of some grizzled veterans of city politics (street paver George Mahoney, parking garage owner Benjamin Greenwald, liquor lawyer Joseph Woolman, lobbyist Frank Boston).

Harbor East restaurateur Alex Smith (standing) bequeathed $7,000 to two councilmen (Schleifer and Costello) outside of his district, while shunning his own representative, Zeke Cohen. He is pictured with former Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Secretary Aris Melissaratos. (neomagazine.com)

NOTES: In a district teeming with waterfront development, few developer dollars went to Cohen. . . Most contributions came from $50 ticket purchases (or multiples of $50) by residents attending fundraisers at local restaurants. . . Holding a $86,721 cash surplus from his 2016 campaign, Cohen wound up with a little less money at the end of 2017.

Brandon Scott pocketed $1,000 from the LLC that owns this Pulaski Highway strippers-and-cheap-beer club. The same LLC handed $500 over to Eric Costello. (Brew file photo)

NOTES: The Eastside rookie added to her $44,000 election-year surplus mostly by tapping into Martin-Lauer’s Rolodex of reliable labor and business donors. . . Another small contributor was Raffle Ready, an online company founded and co-owned by Sneed’s colleague, Yitzy Schleifer.

Councilman Costello listens as Shannon Sneed introduces a bill calling for a day of recognition for Henrietta Lacks. The HeLa cell originator wasn’t from Sneed’s central-east district – nor were many of her donors last year. (abc2news)

Councilman Edward Reisinger (10th)

Sample Expenses: Turkeys for Cherry Hill at Christmas ($585), food for Morrell Park and Cherry Hill community cookouts ($705), suite for campaign volunteers at Orioles game ($650), donation for pancake breakfast at St. Marks Church ($100).

NOTES: After two decades as Southwest’s councilman, the 67-year-old is giving back.